2025 Explainer Video Costs: Busting the £30k Myth

Why the £30k label sticks in my throat!

“Video has directly boosted sales for 87 % of marketers.”

— Wyzowl

With statistics like this, no wonder every man, dog and marketing director wants a video, explainer or a whiteboard animation! Trouble is when blogs on a competitor’s site, in the cut-throat SEO game, go viral and list your services as “costing thirty grand”. I’ll level with you, my stomach did that awkward elevator-drop. That “industry roundup” blog has been copied, quoted and scraped for years, and the myth has been created.

Look, I’m proud of the A-grade films we craft for blue-chip brands around the world, and of course I am really proud to have invented the medium of Whiteboard Animation. But the idea that you need a VC-sized purse to work with us? That stings and is plainly untrue.

Here’s why that throw-away “thirty grand” label feels like a punch in the creative kidneys:

First, it slams a velvet rope across the doorway. We’ve spent twenty years streamlining our pipeline, story mapping technique, hand-crafting illustrations, animatics and animations, so a high-growth SaaS or climate-tech start-up can afford the same storytelling oomph as a global bank. When a viral blog paints us as Monaco-level luxury, the very teams we built Cognitive for, clever, purpose-driven, yet slightly skint, will invariably scroll straight past, assuming we’d laugh them out of Zoom.

Second, it twists the narrative around our craft. Whiteboard animation was never meant to be a gilded Fabergé egg; I invented the medium to democratise complex ideas. Hearing “£30k or bust” suggests we’re guarding the technique like proprietary plutonium, when in reality, clients own the IP once the films are complete. We hold your hand every step of the way. We want to make sure everyone is 100% happy all the way along our process.

Third, if I’m brutally honest—it dents the morale of the illustrators, writers, and animators who put their hearts, souls and incredible talents into keeping projects lean. They’ve perfected a workflow that wrings every penny of value from each second of animation, only to see a competitor’s SEO clickbait tag us as price-gougers. That’s like preparing a wholesome £12 pub lunch and having a newspaper review call it “haute cuisine at £120 a plate.”

In short, the myth doesn’t just hurt our ego; it misses our mission, scares off the change makers we most want to champion, and muddies the waters of what whiteboard animation is supposed to stand for—clarity, accessibility, and a pinch of wonder.

The whole reason I started Cognitive was to democratise knowledge: give sharp-but-resource-strapped teams the same storytelling firepower as the Fortune 500. We geek out on oncology pipelines, open-source dev tools, and carbon-capture tech precisely because those missions matter. If our price tag feels like Fort Knox, the very people whose breakthroughs deserve a voice might never knock on the door.

So, consider this blog a line in the sand (and a friendly wave). Yes, we sweat every frame, train our specialist team of illustrators, and obsess over the science—but we also flex budgets, trim scope, and run discovery sprints so purpose-driven brands can punch above their weight. Prestige shouldn’t be the gatekeeper to progress; clarity should be.

If you’re wrestling with a big, knotty idea and assume we’re out of reach, send us an email. Let’s sketch possibilities before we even talk money.

Our whiteboard films and explainer videos push the dopamine button without bulldozing the budget. What really drives price isn’t brand ego—it’s scope: research depth, bespoke visuals, and the rounds of revision you crave. Many of you reading this will, no doubt, be thinking of a knarly, complex problem that could do with some visual-thinking magic to help it be understood and shared. Simply press the button below and book a call with us - we’d be happy to share our twenty years of visual communication expertise with you - I’m sure we’ll be able to help you on your communications journey.

Decision driver	We Are Cognitive	Mid-tier agency	DIY tool
Typical 60-sec budget	£1-3k finished-min (all-in)	£1.5-4k finished-min (project + add-ons)	£20–£100/mo licence + your payroll hours
Visual style	Hand-drawn, frame-by-frame, bespoke to brand	Template-tweaked 2-D or motion graphics	Stock assets, limited customisation
Script & research	Deep discovery, SME interviews, draft-by-draft co-write	Light brief-in, one rewrite pass	You write it (or “AI-assist”)
Voice-over & sound	Union-grade VO, original SFX + mix	Freelance VO, basic mix	Stock music, text-to-speech
Revisions included	2–3 full rounds plus tweaks	1–2 minor rounds, extras billed	None (redo it yourself)
Usage licence	Global, perpetual, multi-platform	Often time-bound or platform-bound	Depends on stock terms, usually online only
Project management	Dedicated producer keeping plates spinning	Account manager juggling 10+ projects	You are the PM
Time to delivery	2-5 weeks (with timetable lock)	3–5 weeks (may slip)	Same day… if you’re free
ROI tracking	Post-launch analytics review, case-study metrics	Optional upsell	You dig up the numbers
Best fit for	Complex ideas, brand-critical launches, board-level audiences	Explainers for marketing campaigns with moderate polish	Internal comms, quick social posts, budget-tied startups

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